Do you ever wish you could apply those extra coins you have leftover from your coffee purchase to a worthy cause that would help to reinforce our fragile US democracy? We at CleanTechnica have discovered a donor platform that sends spare change to progressive candidates as you make everyday purchases. It might be just what you’re looking for if you want to get big money out of politics by getting small money into it. Pushing national change starts with each of us.

Wave elections are a chance to build on the progressive base by winning back voters disappointed in the other side, according to The Atlantic. They outline that Democrats will have plenty of disappointments to bring to their attention, including Republican health-care and tax-cut plans that betray the working-class voters who put Trump in the White House.

There’s a special way that you can participate to move the political discourse more in line with progressive viewpoints. The new donor platform GiveMini lets you put your spare change towards national change by helping progressive candidates to win competitive midterm races. Progressives only get one shot at the 2018 midterm elections, and you could see your extra pennies turn into meaningful impact through the GiveMini dashboard.

Why You Need to Take Action toward National Change in Election Funding

The US campaign finance system has undergone fundamental changes in the last 15 years, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center;

There are many new vehicles for money to flow into election campaigns.

The politics of campaign finance have introduced new actors, especially Super PACs, who have grown in significance and redefined the roles of insiders and outsiders to the electoral system.

Technology such as the internet, social media, and mobile devices have chipped away at television as the predominant mode of political campaigning.

The Bipartisan Policy Center reports that the current system of campaign finance would be almost unrecognizable to participants in the 1970s system.

How It Works

GiveMini’s model turns simple things like a cup of coffee into tiny moments of civic engagement. You connect your credit card to the GiveMini site. 90% of your contributions go to campaigns and candidates. 10% goes towards our national efforts and continued growth and support. Campaigns value small donor contributions, and GiveMini pushes this to an extreme. GiveMini focuses on a slow drip of micro-donations rather than larger lump sum donations. They believe it’s often easier to justify and budget for a few cents at a time rather than larger monthly amounts.

Such micro-donations are considered a compelling and novel alternative to long-time players in progressive giving. GiveMini is a good choice if you want to support innovative progressive tools.

What’s at Stake in the 2018 Midterms

An unprecedented number of women have been motivated to dive into politics for the first time, many with the hope of defeating or succeeding men who’ve held the bulk of America’s political power for centuries.

When we support diverse progressives to run for races, we build a foundation for the future . The folks we support now could be possible members of the House, Senate, and maybe even President one day. We need to help progressive candidates with seed money, organization building, and access to trainings in order to gain momentum and be as successful as possible.

Pick a Progressive

GiveMini is for progressives. This includes many Democrats and Independents, and potentially some Republicans.

What’s the difference between “liberal” and “progressive?” Political commentator David Sirota says the two terms are not synonyms. “There is a fundamental difference when it comes to core economic issues,” Sirota writes. “It seems to me that traditional ‘liberals’ in our current parlance are those who focus on using taxpayer money to help better society. A ‘progressive’ are those who focus on using government power to make large institutions play by a set of rules.”

The stage is set for a historic progressive renaissance that will win the 2018 midterm elections and lead the nation after the 2020 presidential campaign. The word “progressive” is well on its way toward displacing the more recent usage of “liberal,” and becoming the identifier of choice for American politicians to the left of center.

GiveMini only supports candidates with intensely progressive agendas. GiveMini assesses the fit of a candidate on a campaign-by-campaign basis and reserves the right to cease support for any campaign, candidate, or individual at any time.

Why Spare Change?

How do you begin with GiveMini? You choose a campaign to get started. Confirm your candidate of choice, picking the person you feel is best suited to represent your interests. Or you can delegate the choice to GiveMini. Then you can sit back and watch your impact grow. You’ll also receive updates as GiveMini supports even more campaigns.

It’s often easier to spare a few cents each day, rather than a larger amount each month. Campaigns don’t want to send you non-stop emails asking for donations, but it’s currently the status quo. GiveMini gives campaigns a reliable drip of micro-contributions.

When you donate a small amount in frequent increments, it’s easy for you and the GiveMini site. When you connect your bank, you are allowing the bank to inform GiveMini when you make a purchase. GiveMini is sent limited information about transactions (like the amount), which allows them to calculate your spare change. When you have a new transaction, GiveMini creates a new round up equal to the difference between the transaction amount and the next even dollar amount.

What is GiveMini’s Long-Term Strategy?

GiveMini is committed to serving progressive campaigns, candidates, and causes with great, innovative technology. Before you know it, they’ll offer a number of other products and projects they’ll be rolling out over the next 6-12 months. By joining GiveMini, you’ll be among the first to know about these new products and have exclusive access to closed betas.

Their disclosed expenses include servers, third party APIs like Plaid and Auth0, and processing fees from Stripe.

About the Author

Carolyn Fortuna Carolyn Fortuna, Ph.D. is a writer, researcher, and educator with a lifelong dedication to ecojustice. She's won awards from the Anti-Defamation League, The International Literacy Association, and The Leavy Foundation. She’s molds scholarship into digital media literacy and learning to spread the word about sustainability issues. Please follow me on Twitter and Facebook and Google+

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